The Comparative Effects of Cod Liver Oil, Cod Liver Oil Concentrate, Lard and Cottonseed Oil in A Synthetic Diet on the Development of Nutritional Muscular Dystrophy

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Abstract
A study is reported of the skeletal muscle dystrophy which occurs in guinea pigs and rabbits fed synthetic diets containing cod liver oil or its concentrate and with lard or cottonseed oil as the chief source of fat. The basal synthetic diet alone without added fat other than the non-saponifiable fraction of cod liver oil as a source of vitamins produced dystrophy to nearly the same extent as the same diet which included 6 per cent of lard; but the use of cottonseed oil in place of the lard resulted in a high degree of protection against the development of muscle lesions. No such protective effect resulted when cod liver oil was fed as the source of vitamins in place of its non-saponifiable fraction. Experiments with restricted natural food diets demonstrated these relations further and furnished additional evidence that the fat relationships studied are probably not the only factors in the production of muscle lesions. Nutritional muscular dystrophy in the rabbit and guinea pig is similar histopathologically and is characterized by a lowered creatine content and a tendency to an increased oxygen consumption of the excised muscle tissue.